Soft-sided or hybrid (soft-sided and hard-sided) luggage articles (e.g., suitcases) conventionally include a frame to provide support and rigidity to one or more soft panels or walls of the luggage article. The design of such frames for luggage articles presents a particularly unique challenge. Specifically, the frames must be robust enough to withstand use under heavy loading of the luggage article and impact forces when the luggage article is dropped. On the other hand the frames must also be lightweight and compact so as to maximize the weight and volume that the luggage article can carry for a given overall size and weight. The frames must also be simple and relatively cheap to produce and assemble to minimize cost.
Conventional frames are constructed of steelwire that extends through a sleeve attached to the periphery of a panel of a luggage article. One drawback of the steelwire frame is the steelwire may be susceptible to permanent deformation under heavy loads or high impact forces. Another drawback of the steelwire frame is the steelwire is relatively heavy, and thus increases the weight of the luggage article more than preferred. To overcome some of the issues with a steelwire frame, some luggage articles include internal frames having struts connected together by joint members. A drawback to these internal frames is the frame occupies internal space of the luggage article, and thus the luggage article has less internal space to store one's belongings.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved luggage article, and more specifically an improved external frame that addresses the above described problems and/or which more generally offers improvements or an alternative to existing arrangements.
Documents that may be related to the present disclosure in that they include various frames are: DE202010004883, EP2363037, FR2949950, GB2440206, GB2441580, GB2477087, PCT/EP2012/072697, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,984,797.